Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Cheap and Easy..Just the way Dad likes it.

So it's been a while since I updated the ol' blog here. But I finally have something to say and damn it you're going to listen!

So fathers day is comming up and I have an idea for those of you that want to give an inexpensive gift that involves Free Software.

Step one:Buy a Sandisk Sansa e250 for $30 from here.Step Two:Download the Rockbox installer here.Step Three:Use the utility to install the specific build for the Sansa e200 seiries. (This step is so easy!)Step Three:Pick a really cool theme you think he will enjoy.Step Four:Wrap it up and give it to your father for fathers day!Step Five:Download WinFF for his computer to convert video to the correct format for the player. It is a simple gui tool that is a front end for FFMPEG and has presets for Rockbox Sansa e200.Step Six:Download gPodder and set him up with some cool podcast about whatever your eccentric father is into...model airplanes, stamp collection even crazy conspiracys. Now you've connected him to the immense content that the internet provides.Step Seve:Download and settup Amazons mp3 downloader. This will give him access to all the music he wants.What will he get?

A cool player:The player has a microSD slot to extend it's capacity, an FM tuner to catch his morning radio shows and a voice recorder to help him remember things.

Extended media support:Rockbox includes support for more media formats than it did out of the box meaning when your Dad downloads something off the internet to listen to on the player there is a better chance of it working without bugging you to convert it.

More functionality:The Rockbox firmware provides a much plesenter user experience with faster fast forwards, video resume points, fade in/out on pause, more information on the now playing screen and much, much more!

Applications:Rockbox comes with great applications that are helpfull everything like Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Stopwatch, lamp(turns the screen all white to help navigate the dark), and more.

Games:Rockbox comes with quite a few time killers like Solitare, Blackjack, Roxblocks(Tetris Clone), and even Doom.

DRM free music:You won't have to explane to him why the music he bought won't work when the next generation of players comes out.

It might not be as expensive as an iPod and some might argue not as cool looking, however, this baby does a lot with a little and will bring your father into this century with style.

What do you get?The satisfaction on introducing dear ol' Dad to free software without turning his world upside down and getting him a cool gadget that he can use.

P.S.All Apps listed are Windows and Linux compatible so if you turned him into a convert or not it will all work and make him a happy pappy.